Apologize if this has been covered elsewhere. Seems most feel Whiteside is most likely to return to Miami. However, since they only hold his Early Bird Rights (played 2 seasons with same team), this severely limits their ability to offer a large contract which exceeds the salary cap. I was curious just how much they could offer.

As it stands right now, Miami has 6 players under contract for a total of $49,756,222. But the real kicker are the cap holds. Cap holds for Wade, Deng, Haslem, and Stoudemire alone total over $50,000,000, giving the a cap number north of $100 million at the start of free agency. This doesn't even account for cap holds for having fewer than 12 players on the roster, and renounces everyone else on the team.

Some of that number can be reduced by signing Wade to a quick contract, reducing his cap hold from $30 million to whatever he signs for. But after signing a short contract last year, he's not likely to give the team a discount. I expect a deal starting in the $24 million range. Just to give them the benefit of the doubt, call it $22 million for Wade. That puts the Heat's number at almost $72 million, which is where they need to be in order to sign Whiteside to his max salary of near $22 million.

But that means they have to renounce nearly everyone else on their roster. Not exactly a great sales pitch to any free agent. With the early bird restrictions, the most the Heat can offer Whiteside while exceeding the salary cap is 104.5% of the average salary. If they want to keep other players, that means they have to offer Whiteside less than the max. I think this basically puts Miami out of the running to keep him. And it they're not in the running, I put our chances high against most any other team in terms of prospects for winning. Not saying we SHOULD sign him. Just pointing out that we've got as good a chance as any, and a fairly better chance than Miami if money is a key factor.

What do you think?